Pebbles in the pond

Surrender

Part 43 of the ongoing saga of The Great Being, the One Self that manifests as each of us.

We have been following the experiences of two Agents of Cosmic Intelligence, Melchizedek and Layla, here on a mission that started in 200,000 BC. They are now well into their new life, around 40,000 BC in the mountains of northwestern Spain.

In the previous episode, the enemy King Stari-ki had announced himself with a loud roar. There was a standstill in the fighting though both sides were poised to resume battle. Shouting at his men, Stari-ki smiled at Blu and Ska, acknowledging them as good fighters and inviting them to join his cause. Conflicted with loyalty to their tribe’s King, they pondered their fate when suddenly their own King appeared over the escarpment, unscathed. What did they have to lose? Previous episodes.

Blu and Ska stepped forward almost simultaneously toward their new King, bowing slightly as they walked slowly and edgily toward the ferocious enemy band and their old King, over whom Stari-ki towered. Their old King looked smaller than he had looked before, and a bit shriveled next to the vital giant Stari-ki.

Stari-ki put his right palm against Blu’s chest to stop him and then did the same to Ska. Everyone took this to mean their acceptance into the army. Stari-ki then reached for Blu’s battleax but Blu yanked it back reflexively. Stari-ki smiled and said, “You of course will get all your weapons back soon, but as we go down the mountain together it would make my men nervous. Better to give them up for a while. I’ll make sure that none of the men take advantage of you while you are unarmed.”

“So will we,” Blu said, and the King’s smile widened. With considerable reservation, our Agents allowed themselves to be disarmed. After that it went fairly easily, without incident, as they all descended the rough slope together, Stari-ki helping his men as they needed it.

Down below, the tribe’s camp was totally covered in rock, including the dwellings. They descended still further, all the way down to the green valley; daylight had faded into dusk by the time they reached the main body of the army. By this point, Blu and Ska could see the last remnants of their now former tribe rounded up into a small cluster of young females. Apparently all of the males, warriors and slaves alike, had already been killed. Blu and Ska had hoped that they were not the only ones taken into the new King’s family, but it appeared to be only them and their old King. During the journey down the mountain, they had noticed he was now called “Aldus” and not “King”.

There was much talk and whispering among the warriors as they spotted Blu and Ska coming into view, unarmed but apparently not prisoners.

Ska felt strong arms come at him from the side and grab him. As he swung to fight, he saw that it was Ya-hay, the scout Blu and Ska had captured and treated well. He was hugging Ska, so Ska hugged him back. “All on the same team now,” Ya-hay beamed at them, and they both nodded and smiled with gradually increasing confidence. Then he and Blu hugged as well. Male hugging was not considered abominable but rather normal among warriors.

“What about our wives?” Ska asked Stari-ki as they were entering camp. He thought about it for a moment, and then said, “Of course, you may have them to yourselves,” and gave the order to one of his men.

The two women, Izbel and Asa, Blu’s and Ska’s wives respectively, were led out of the crowd of captured women and ran to their husbands and hugged them and cried. Blu and Ska hugged back but remained ramrod straight so as to retain the respect of the other warriors. The couples were allowed to wander off freely to find or make shelter and to comfort each other. Blu and Izbel found a bower and built it up with more soft grasses to make it quite comfortable and fairly private. Ska and Asa made a small tent out of fallen logs and other materials nearby, with its own soft floor/bed, close by Blu and Izbel.

Later that evening, the couples were startled by sounds outside their shelters and they all thought that this was when the double-cross would happen. Alas, it was just Blu’s and Ska’s weapons being returned, all of them, none the worse for wear. In fact they had been cleaned, tightened, and improved. It seemed that everything was going to be all right.

Outside their limited perception range (given that Melchizedek and Layla were gone or unconscious and only aware of themselves as Blu and Ska), once they were out of sight, Aldus said to Stari-ki, “I have never trusted those men.” And Stari-ki said, “Come, let us talk about it,” and led him back to his own large tent.

The Great Being, along with avatars that had completed the return journey and were now reunited as personality aspects of The Great Being, looked down and appreciated with high interest the poignancy of the situation. Would Melchizedek and Layla reawaken, and if they did, would Stari-ki then realize their true identities? Because it was all happening in the Free Will Zone, it was unpredictable. The entities looking down delighted in the drama of it all.